Reviews and analysis of movies playing at Red River Theatres in Concord, NH or streaming online

About

BlueMagnolia is a Social Worker’s attempt to rekindle those days, many years ago, when he would attend University film club screenings and geek out about the French New Wave. The title BlueMagnolia is an homage to two of my favorite films (Blue Velvet, Magnolia), and the directors (David Lynch, P.T. Anderson) who are perhaps most responsible for making me look at, and think about, movies in a different way.

Reviews focus on a variety of films, many of which are streaming online (on Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime etc.) or, since the writer is based in Concord, NH, playing at Red River Theatres in Concord (and other independent theaters elsewhere). Each review tries to touch on some key elements – plot/story, acting, direction/cinematography, soundtrack/score, and larger themes/messages/questions posed by the film. Spoilers abound throughout the reviews, so consider yourself warned.

While the scoring for each movie is completely subjective and not that important (as I’m no expert), I am including scores at the top of each post just for fun. That said, films are scored on the following, highly scientific and completely inarguable scale:

* * * * * Interrupt your life to watch this movie

* * * * ½ You will feel the need to tell a lot of people about this movie

* * * * Put this at the top of your list of movies to watch next

* * * ½ You can’t go wrong here / you won’t be disappointed

* * * Solid, redeemable qualities, but with flaws

* * ½ There’s almost something here, but not quite

* * Probably only see this with friends, and plan to make fun of it

* ½ Looking to kill time?

* It’s almost impressive something can be this bad

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